October 01, 2012
Healthy families lead to healthy iwi
The president of the Maori Women’s Welfare League says strengthening families is the most important thing it can do for Maoridom.
The league has just completed its 60th annual conference in Blenheim.
Kateraina O’Brien says the league is acutely aware of the challenges Maori families face in tight economic times, and its members keep working at the flax roots without any media hype.
“From the time this organisation was initiated by great women, that’s what we’ve concentrated on, the family, and if you’ve got your own family on the right track and the immediate families around you, it just carries on to our hapu and our iwi,” she says.
One of her priorities is to recruit more and younger members.